Five Mistakes that Life Coaches Make When Starting A Private Practice
By Kris Hallbom
I have been a professional coach since 1996. In the more recent years, I have done a lot of business coaching with beginner coaches, who are in the process of trying to start a private practice. I've also had the opportunity to work with a variety of coaches who are highly successful in their practices and make a lot of money in the process.
I would like to share with you five common mistakes that I see beginner coaches making, that successful coaches rarely make. Whether your a seasoned coach or a newbie to coaching, my hope is that you will learn something new to help you be even more successful in your coach practice!
1. Unwilling to do free sample sessions – One of the best ways to launch a coaching practice is to start doing free sample coaching sessions with as many people as possible. Typically, a free sample session will run anywhere from 30-60 minutes long, and is a good way for prospective clients to see how you work. There are several benefits to doing this, which includes: Gaining practical experience in coaching other people; becoming more confident as a coach, and getting the word out that you are working with people. Plus, some of your free sample session clients will ultimately roll over into full paying clients, and will refer other paying clients to you!
Keep in mind; there will always be a few beginner coaches who do not need to do free sample sessions when first starting their practices. Typically these are the people who are already working as a high paid consultant or executive, and have an impressive network of people they can tap into who are willing to pay top money for their services. Unless if you have such a network, then you might consider doing free sample sessions to let people know you are in the coaching game now, and to create a positive buzz around your practice.
2. Spending too much time obsessing about your website and your brand – I've seen a lot of beginner coaches spend all of their time on marketing and not enough time seeing clients. Again, when starting a practice, the most important thing is to start working with people immediately. This is why doing free sample sessions are so important, because you will get a lot of practice working with clients, become more confident in the process, and begin to build out your network – which will ultimately lead to you having a full schedule of paying clients!
3. Being too picky about the types of clients you will work – The more people you can work with in the beginning, the more skilled and confident you will become as a coach. Of course, their will always be those clients who are inappropriate for you to work with such as people who are clinically depressed, have severe psychological challenges or medical issues. However, in general, try to challenge yourself to working with people who are outside of your comfort zone. If you start doing this, then in due time, you will become an incredibly talented coach as a result of working with so many people – and you will have the luxury of being picky about who you work with, because you will be in such high demand. You will also need to increase your coaching fees, because you will have a waiting list of people to see you!
4. Fear of failure – Many beginner coaches are overwhelmed with fear that they'll do something wrong when working with a client, or they're afraid they don't have enough experience to be coaching people. This is a really common fear for many beginning coaches. One good way to overcome your fear is to practice doing coaching with as many people as you can. Again, this is the beauty in doing free sample sessions, because they help build your confidence and experience as a coach. Another benefit of doing free sample sessions is your client's expectations won't be as high of you and they'll be more forgiving of you. Plus, if you do a really good job, then they might feel compelled to sign up as a regular paying client!
5. Not dealing with your own limiting beliefs and issues about being successful– One of the fastest ways to turbo charge your career as a coach is to consistently work on your own personal development. Whenever, you feel like you are not getting the results you want in your career or life, then consider this a secret opportunity to work on your own personal growth and evolution. The very best coaches I know are consistently working on their own limiting beliefs and issues, and have a team of talented coaches and healers to keep them on top of their game.
Kristine Hallbom is the co-founder of the NLP & Coaching Institute, and has been actively involved in the field of NLP for over 25 years. She has been working as a professional NLP Coach since 1996, and has done thousands of hours of professional coaching with her clients and students throughout her career. She is also co-founder of the Academy for Coaching and NLP, which is the first NLP based program to be approved by the International Coach Federation (ICF) in North America in 2001.
© 2019 Kristine Hallbom
